Not applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of greeting cards in general and in particular to a greeting card in combination with a diverse article such as a candle or the like.
2. Description of Related Art
As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. No. 3,077,981; DES. 319,843; U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,714,774; 4,035,937; and, U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,615, the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse greeting cards combined with diverse articles such as candles.
While all of the aforementioned prior art constructions are more than adequate for the basic purpose and function for which they have been specifically designed, they are uniformly deficient with respect to their failure to provide a simple, efficient, and practical greeting card and candle combination wherein the candle is comprised of a plurality of components that in their unassembled state form a background for an image that appears on the face of the greeting card.
Unfortunately, the prior art greeting card/candle combinations employ whole candle elements which, due to their bulky external configurations, are prone to damage in the mail since they do not have the slim profile that most automated mail handling systems require for processing flats.
As a consequence of the foregoing situation, there has existed a longstanding need for a new and improved combined greeting card and decorative candle display wherein the components of the candle comprise a plurality of generally flat rectangular contoured elements to initially produce a slim profile for mailing and which are combinable with one another to produce a tapered candle once the recipient has the greeting card in their possession and the provision of such an arrangement is the stated objective of the present invention.
Briefly stated, the combined greeting card and candle arrangement that forms the basis of the present invention comprises in general a card unit, a candle unit adapted to be received by the greeting card unit and a decorative unit which is releasably associated with the candle unit.
As will be explained in greater detail further on in the specification, the candle unit comprises the crux of this invention and includes a plurality of different sized and different colored wax sheets which originally form a removable background for the front of the card unit and a support surface for the decorative unit; but, which more importantly comprise the components of a tapered finished candle member wherein the largest of the wax sheets has a wick element embedded along one edge which winds up being axially disposed relative to the finished candle member.
In addition, the front face of the card unit is provided with a plurality of slots which releasably receive selected portions of the multiple, generally flat layers of the wax sheets; wherein, the different colored wax sheets constitute a background and a support surface for the decorative unit which are releasably attached thereto.